One of the reasons why I like to grow plants is their link with the past. Now the greenhouse is up and running and I can turn my attention to a few plants that don’t add to the structure of the garden but are just fun, I have been collecting a few this year. And one that I grew from seed, and links me to my childhood is Cuphea ignea. It is not a startling beauty but I was always amused by it because the flowers resemble lit cigars. My father would smoke cigars now and then (the smell of Christmas always means cigar smoke to me rather than mulled wine or cinnamon pomanders) and these were the days when it was not the social no-no it is today.

Cuphea ignea is a tropical perennial shrub, native to Mexico and the Caribbean, but can easily be grown as an annual. There is a very desirable variegated form too. Cupheas are odd flowers with long tubular blooms with five petals at the tip. In some the two uppermost petals are enlarged and the lower three tiny. This gives the flowers a rather odd bat-face or mouse-like look as in ‘Firecracker’ below.

There are lots of others too but Cuphea ignea is a cute plant with flowers in orange complete with a black and white ‘ash’ tip. I can’t say it appears attractive to pollinators and it is probably pollinated by hummingbirds in the wild.

I have them in pots with an orange bidens and canna ‘Durban’ though they are a bit crowded already. In good soil, in sun, plants should get to 60cm high and wide in a summer. I will save seeds as well as take cuttings to overwinter frostfree. Each flower produces a dozen or so seeds and the flower tubes splits to expose them so it won’t be difficult to collect a few.

In warmer climates the plant is valuable because it can tolerate drought and heat, not that that is an issue this summer, so far! It has the RHS Award of Garden Merit, which seems a little odd really for a plant that is far from dazzling, but perhaps it is because of the ease of cultivation.

Cuphea ignea, mexican cigar plant